Sunday, August 16, 2009

There´s the gringa way and there´s the right way to do laundry by hand

Zoriada taught me how to do laundry in a bucket yesterday. I have washed and item or two by hand in the sink before, but this was the real deal. Zoriada is a wonderful Peruvian señora that rents a room to Maryjane. They welcomed me for the 10 days in Ollantaytambo. It was kind of like having my grandmother teach me how to do laundry except even my grandmothers had machines at some point in thier lives. Zoriada says the machines don´t get the clothes as clean. So if you want to know how to hand wash your clothes, here are the steps:

1. Pour fresh clean water into a bucket (do not reuse water from previous washings)2. Add laundry soap3. Once the clothes have soaked a bit, use your hands or the washboard and brush to scrub the clothing. Do the colors first, keeping them seperate from the whites.4. Don´t worry about the freezing cold water from the Andes springs, you will get used to it.5. Fill the sink with fresh water and rinse three times with the running water. Three times, this is very important.6. Ring each item out well. This means that your hands might get chapped but no worries, you will get used to this too.7. Hang each item carefully on the clothes line, putting them inside out to avoid fading from the sun.